The Witcher vs Dragon Age

Relentless81

Relentless81

Relentless81

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I really wanted an RPG game and bought Dragon Age but I just cant get into it, i'm fairly far into the game but I just cant go back to playing the game and feel i've wasted my money, the story is boring and I was hoping for a bit of a horror type but its really not

I still want to play a decent RPG that I will enjoy, is it worth trying The Witcher? Its cheap on Steam and the second one is due soon so thought it might be worth picking up?
 
I really enjoyed it, the combat system is more interesting that the standard point and click affair. You have to time your attacks and mix in some magic. I don't remember the story all too well but it didn't put me off the game.

I've meant to go back and give it a go since they've patched it up and added extra content to the game. They have released a directors but version that has a lot of extra stuff but I think this is still all provided in patch 1.5.
 
I played up to about half way through before I got caught up in other games/life/work. This is actually high praise from me considering I don't even like RPG games. I do plan on finishing it once I have some free time.
 
The Witcher is one of the best games I have played in the last 20 years, so I say give it a go. The combat system is controversial I guess, but I didn't mind it.
 
DA has a ton of playstyles and you can do things in many different orders and use different strategies for repeat playthroughs.

2 completely different games. If you can't get into DA i fail to see how you'd get into The Witcher. While it is an awesome game there is pretty much only a single valid tactic (max Igni and abuse Group Stance) which is great fun on the first playthrough but significantly less fun on a second playthrough where the pacing and everything is identical and theres no real variation in what you can do, how you kill it or what order you kill it.

If you can find it cheap, go for it, its a fantastic game to experience once. But anymore than that and you might find yourself getting bored.
 
Relentless81 said:
I'm glad to hear the combat system is different to Dragon Age

Whats the combat like more specifically?
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The Witcher is a lot more atmospheric, some of the underground stuff is quite creepy. Combat is basically swing your sword, wait for a visual cue, swing it again to start a combo, wait for next visual cue to continue the combo and so on.

Sounds really crappy, but with heavy, light and multiple attacker styles to switch between and spells and potions thrown into the mix combat is actually quite entertaining. Nowhere near as tactical as Dragon age, but a lot more fast paced.
 
It is important to note that when you start the Witcher, please ignore the first chapter as it is a horrible tutorial basically. Which is really boring.

After that the game really picks up and is awesome! :D
 
I ordered it but it was out of stock so I cancelled my order. What I don't like the look of is the amount of times you have to hack at something before you can move on to the next enemy, bit of a grind fest?

I like the look of the scenery and story etc though.
 
I've just played it just now, been playing for about 2-3h and like it so far.(i also liked DA a lot too but this is entirely different)

Not experienced any issues either yet using W7 64 bit and got Enhanced Edition which you can now download as a patch if you have the original.

The combat system seems ok since like mentioned you get nice spells to play around with mixing between melee

I really like the scenery and gfx in this game....
 
Evilsod said:
If you can't get into DA i fail to see how you'd get into The Witcher.
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I bought both recently, having heard great things about them on the PC Gamer podcast. But a couple of hours into DA I wasn't really engaged by the plot or the style of gameplay. I will return to it (eventually) now I've finished Witcher, but IMO Witcher has heaps and heaps of atmosphere. The music, the relentlessly murky world, it sucked me in despite all the weaknesses.

I'd recommend anyone watch the Escapist review first (link removed), because all of that is true even if its a bit harsh for comedic value. And yet despite all that I couldn't stop playing it once I started a session. Just one more quest element before I... ok, maybe two more plot elements... and a side-quest, and... and... ;-)

I paid £8 for my copy in a one day sale somewhere. I will definitely pay a lot more for the second.

As ever with games, one man's meat is another man's murder. But I was really surprised at how much I enjoyed the overall experience. I even like the artwork cutscenes, even if they can be a bit confusing. It's far from perfect, but neither was Fallout3 and I really enjoyed that for similar reasons.

Andrew McP
 
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arc@css said:
What I don't like the look of is the amount of times you have to hack at something before you can move on to the next enemy, bit of a grind fest?
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It can be, especially when you meet enemies you're not well equipped to handle. But once you get the hang of it (a bit like you get the hang of using VATS in FO3) it's not too bad, and timing the special moves does mean there's always a bit of a challenge.

Andrew McP
 
Sleepery said:
The Witcher is a lot more atmospheric, some of the underground stuff is quite creepy. Combat is basically swing your sword, wait for a visual cue, swing it again to start a combo, wait for next visual cue to continue the combo and so on.

Sounds really crappy, but with heavy, light and multiple attacker styles to switch between and spells and potions thrown into the mix combat is actually quite entertaining. Nowhere near as tactical as Dragon age, but a lot more fast paced.
Click to expand...

Sycho said:
I've just played it just now, been playing for about 2-3h and like it so far.(i also liked DA a lot too but this is entirely different)

Not experienced any issues either yet using W7 64 bit and got Enhanced Edition which you can now download as a patch if you have the original.

The combat system seems ok since like mentioned you get nice spells to play around with mixing between melee

I really like the scenery and gfx in this game....
Click to expand...

Andrew_McP said:
I bought both recently, having heard great things about them on the PC Gamer podcast. But a couple of hours into DA I wasn't really engaged by the plot or the style of gameplay. I will return to it (eventually) now I've finished Witcher, but IMO Witcher has heaps and heaps of atmosphere. The music, the relentlessly murky world, it sucked me in despite all the weaknesses.

I'd recommend anyone watch this Escapist review first, because all of that is true even if its a bit harsh for comedic value. And yet despite all that I couldn't stop playing it once I started a session. Just one more quest element before I... ok, maybe two more plot elements... and a side-quest, and... and... ;-)

I paid £8 for my copy in a one day sale somewhere. I will definitely pay a lot more for the second.

As ever with games, one man's meat is another man's murder. But I was really surprised at how much I enjoyed the overall experience. I even like the artwork cutscenes, even if they can be a bit confusing. It's far from perfect, but neither was Fallout3 and I really enjoyed that for similar reasons.

Andrew McP
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All good stuff, sounds like what i'm after and should have bought instead of DA

On DA I went into some stupid "Dream World" after meating a rather ugly demon blokey that I was hoping I would have to fight but nooooooooo "Dream World" type place means I havent played the game since

I'll get The Witcher off Steam and be sure to apply the enhanced ed. patch many thanks people
 
Relentless81 said:
On DA I went into some stupid "Dream World" after meating a rather ugly demon blokey that I was hoping I would have to fight but nooooooooo "Dream World" type place means I havent played the game since.
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Although I enjoyed "The Fade", you're not the only one who didn't. There is a mod that allows you to get past it. It's called "Skip The Fade". It does exactly what it says on the tin, and still gives you all the bonuses you could have picked up whilst you were in there. :)

http://www.dragonagenexus.com/downloads/file.php?id=816

That'll get you back to the game As It Should Be Played. :)
 
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